“Book Club” a comeback for Jane Fonda
TORONTO —At 80, Jane Fonda feels like she's in her prime.
“I feel I’m my best self right now,” the two-time Oscar-winning actress, activist, author, former model and fitness guru said in a recent phone interview.
“I think all the work and the intentionality has paid off. The French have an expression: ‘Je suis bien dans ma peau’ — ‘I am good in my skin.”’
Such is also the outlook of her character in her new film “Book Club,” a surprise hit which hit theatres last week.
Fonda plays a hotel mogul whose confidence and sexual prowess shine through in her “I don’t need anyone” attitude, and her leather clothing and thigh-high boots.
Her disinterest in a long-term life partner changes, however, when she starts to fall for a former lover, played by Don Johnson.
Helping her through her crisis of the heart are her longtime friends, played by Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen.
As they each read “Fifty Shades of Grey” as part of their monthly book club, they also encounter personal and relationship issues that force them out of their comfort zones.
“(The cast) was one of the reasons I wanted to do the movie,” said Fonda.
“I had met all the other women but I didn’t really know them and I wanted to get to know them. We had a very, very good time and we’ve all pledged to remain friends.”
Fonda also liked that the story highlights “the importance of women’s friendships.”
“Seeing women loving each other and having each other’s backs, I think it’s very important. Too often that’s not what we see,” she said.
“The other thing is seeing older women —women over 60, in my case 80 —having interesting, exciting and even sensual lives is a good thing for people to see. It will make younger people less afraid of getting older.”
Montreal native Erin Simms co-wrote and produced the star-packed comedy along with Bill Holderman, who also directed. The two first met while working at Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises, which produced “Our Souls at Night,” starring him and Fonda.
Simms said the story was inspired by Holderman sending the “Fifty Shades” trilogy to his mom for Mother’s Day, which prompted her to do the same.
“We really wanted the movie to leave you with the feeling of looking forward instead of looking back,” she said.
“We’re a very youth-centric culture, but isn’t it exciting to look forward and still feel like your life is continuing to get better in whatever way you want it to get?”
Fonda, of course, is well-suited to play such a powerful bombshell character.
On top of her towering success in the acting world —which includes best-actress Oscars for “Klute” and “Coming Home” in the 1970s — she maintains a self-care regime that includes sleeping eight or nine hours a night, working out several times a week and being careful of what she eats. She’s also continued her activism, which these days involves helping out the Time’s Up women’s empowerment movement.
And her career is as vibrant as ever, with a starring role alongside her former “9 to 5” star Lily Tomlin in the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie.” She’s also executive producing a remake of “9 to 5.”
“I wouldn’t want to go back for anything,” Fonda said, noting she feels better today than she did when she was 20.
“Yeah, your body starts to fail you in many different ways. But you’re wiser, you don’t tend to get stressed as much, you don’t sweat the small stuff —and I don’t think it’s unique to me. It’s true of the majority of people over 50, if they’re healthy.
“In the United States, we have a fetish about youth and I’m doing all I can to get rid of ageism and to show, with ‘Grace and Frankie,’ for example, and ‘Book Club,’ that you can be pretty interesting and have a lot of fun when you’re older.”
Some of that also comes down to “genes and money,” Fonda added.
“It’s easier to stay looking good if those things are in place,” she said. “But more than anything it has to do with attitude.”